Comcast acquires full ownership of NBCUniversal ahead of schedule

Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, will consolidate its control over NBCUniversal by buying out the 49 percent of the media company that it doesn't already own. Comcast will pay General Electric $16.7 billion for the shares and shell out $1.4 billion for related real estate, including the iconic 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

Under a deal announced in 2009, General Electric spun NBC, Universal Studios, and various other media properties off into a new joint venture and sold 51 percent of the shares, and effective control, to Comcast.

The merger was intensely controversial. Critics charged that the acquisition would further cement Comcast's already dominant position in the cable market, making it impossible for competitors such as Netflix to compete on a level playing field. But regulators decided not to challenge the merger, settling for a long list of regulatory concessions.

By structuring the deal so that GE initially held 49 percent of NBCUniversal, Comcast limited its downside risk: if the merger went sour, as some some media mergers have, GE would have eaten some of the losses. The original deal gave Comcast an option to buy the rest of NBCUniversal in 2014, but evidently the merger has been going well and Comcast decided to buy GE out ahead of schedule.

Even after the early acquisition, Comcast evidently had cash to spare. The firm also announced a larger shareholder dividend and a $2 billion share buyback plan.

As we reported when the merger was approved, Comcast will now control its massive cable network, the Telemundo Spanish-language network, the NBC television network, TV production studios, the Universal movie studio, the Universal theme parks in LA and Florida, channels like MSNBC and CNBC, and a stake in Hulu. Prior to the merger, Comcast already owned TV channels like E! and G4, and the Philadelphia Flyers NHL franchise.

Corrections: This story originally stated that Comcast will "control" 234 NBC affiliate stations. While NBCUniversal will supply these stations with content, most are independently owned and operated. Also, we stated that Comcast owned the Philadelphia 76ers, which was true when the deal was announced but is no longer true. We regret the errors.

Timothy B. Lee
Timothy covers tech policy for Ars, with a particular focus on patent and copyright law, privacy, free speech, and open government. His writing has appeared in Slate, Reason, Wired, and the New York Times. Emailtimothy.lee@arstechnica.com//Twitter@binarybits

Comcast also own the HITS cable distribution system that most smaller cable companies have to use to get their channel lineup and content. So even if you compete with them, they are still getting a piece of the pie. It made it VERY hard to be to an independent cable company.

Can we just lose NBC? Maybe we will miss it for a while, but who cares. We will get used to it eventually. Actually I haven't watched TV in years except for an occasional sporting event. If all of TV went dark tomorrow, I would only miss Top Gear.

While the original deal was very, very bad for consumers, Comcast's buying up the whole thing is at least neutral, and possibly good for consumers. They already controlled 100% of the decision-making at NBCUniversal, so let them take 100% of the profits and losses. Shielding the decision-makers from a portion of the results helps nobody.

But vertical integration is always bad for everybody, especially in markets with such high barriers of entry as television production and distribution.

My wife thinks I'm insane because I didn't want to move an area only serviced by Comcast internet.

After this deal starts blowing up in customers' faces, she may understand a little better why I go far out of my way to avoid doing any business with Comcast. Of course, at this rate it's really only a matter of time before Comcast owns my entire state.

what cable tv isn't? I have Time Warner and I went with internet-only because even with the bundles it'd be an extra $15/month for "basic tv" with "over 20 channels", $55/month for standard tv, or even more if I wanted DVR or a bundle with HBO so I could legally watch Game of Thrones instead of pirating it.

it's really hard to justify going back to cable tv when internet-only is much cheaper, especially after years of commercial-free netflix/piracy.

Mergers like these should be approved if the price for consumers drops 25% and is locked in for at least 10 years.

IE if a Cable,Cell,Telephone phone companies by someone out lowering competition then their then all thier plans are dropped by 25% with a 0.1% raise every year and its locked in for 10 years. THis way they will not buy up all the competition without lowering rates.

Well this is a surprising little nightmare. If amazon prime service and netflix weren't so popular (and hulu.. which they have a state in), then this would be like the end of the world monopoly. Now days it's a bit less harsh since many people only use streaming services instead of cable tv. Prime is even getting in on simulcasting (near simulcasting). Maybe that's part of what pushed comcast ahead of schedule on this, who knows. But when that deal was initially made... this full merger would have been catastrophic. Can't believe this was approved back then.

I'm trepidatious over what this will mean for other content providers. Comcast certainly has an interest in keeping NBC cheap for itself but charging other media companies through the nose for its content.

fishsandwich wrote:

Can we just lose NBC? Maybe we will miss it for a while, but who cares. We will get used to it eventually. Actually I haven't watched TV in years except for an occasional sporting event. If all of TV went dark tomorrow, I would only miss Top Gear.

It's a shame it had to happen to NBC. Overall they've put out more shows I've enjoyed than any of the other networks. Of course, aside from the Thursday night comedy lineup it does seem to have been going downhill a bit as of late, I wonder how much of that is Comcast meddling.

With CBS relying almost entirely on crime procedurals, Fox laying waste to quality scripted television with reality show after reality show, and ABC under Disney control (though they do still manage something decent from time to time), NBC was the one network trying to do things right.

As it is my DVR is filled with more content from 2nd tier cable networks than the broadcast networks anyway. SyFy, USA, TNT and FX are putting out higher quality programming than the premier networks these days.

I guess the price gouging is working out well for them. I guess it's naive to think the government will step in and force them to separate. So stupid. Why was this merger ever approved.

There are any number of reasons why this merger was approved, though time, space & motivation don't permit a comprehensive listing.

One factor that played a critical role, however, is that FCC Commissioner (at the time), Meredith Attwell Baker, was understandably anxious to rush the process through so that she could quit her day job with the FCC and assume the position of Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at NBC Universal.

And really now, who knows how long it would take for her to cash-in (or cash in at all) if Comcast's acquisition of NBC wasn't approved quickly & with almost comically inadequate review? Hey...this gives me an idea for a sitcom. Now which pocket did I leave my U.S. Senator in?

Who the fuck approved this? If this is not a conflict of interest I have no idea what is. Ma Bell much? Just a little? I wonder who paid off who for how much?

Don't fool yourself - AT&T is currently bigger than Ma' Bell ever was. And if you toss in the fact that technically Verizon is also an off-shoot of Ma' Bell - you now have the #1 and #2 Telcos in the US as the 2 primary modern chunks of the old company.

And really now, who knows how long it would take for her to cash-in (or cash in at all) if Comcast's acquisition of NBC wasn't approved quickly & with almost comically inadequate review? Hey...this gives me an idea for a sitcom. Now which pocket did I leave my U.S. Senator in?

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There should be a 50% or 75% sur-tax on post government earnings for the next ten years to close the revolving door in Washington.

Also let's repeal the Hollywood tax cuts and go back to the post-WW2 era 20% or so excise tax on movie ticket (and let's apply it to concessions as well) purchases.

I feel like this is part of why 30 Rock had to end. They could rip on NBC and GE all they wanted, but probably couldn't get away with joking about Comcast.

Just one more reason to cut the cord.

here's the problem though - in a lot of places, they're basically the only game in town for broadband. in my neighborhood, for example, i can pay $90/mo for 25mbit down, 3mb up and about 150 channels from comcast, or i can pay about $180/mo for uverse's top-tier data (which is MAYBE 12mb down, 512k up), and a similar channel lineup.

if i drop the TV portion, those prices go down to 80 and 150, respectively. so i keep the tv portion so my wife can get her HGTV fix, and my kids can watch sprout/disney/etc. i pretty much just watch netflix now, so i could care less if tv went away.

the only other option available to me is to pay about a bazillion bucks to have something like an OC3 installed, or "upgrade" to comcast business class, which costs more than what i pay now.